On Saturday, 27th February at 9:30am the Malta National Youths Council- commonly known as KNŻ, gathered (virtually) to discuss proposed amendments made to the Council’s Statute in an Extraordinary General Meeting.
Several measures were implemented to ensure that transparency remained in their voting system as they had to restructure the EGM to fit the online setting. Despite a couple of technical hiccups, the turnout was rather successful.
Members Come and Members go…
One of the first calls of action was to introduce two new full members to the Council- MaltMUN and ESN. Both organisations mentioned their active work with and amongst the community of youths which makes them viable candidates. Following their proposals, the council took a vote as to whether these organisations should become full members of the council. This motion was approved.
A secondary motion was proposed to decide whether MaltMUN and ESN would be granted immediate right to vote in the ongoing EGM. 54.2% of the Council voted in favour of, anonymously. Thus, MaltMun and ESN’s right to vote was granted, bumping the number of active full members up from 25 to 27 present at this EGM!
Another vote was taken to approve two new affiliate members of the Council – MHSA and S-Cubed, which passed unanimously. All affiliate members are not granted the right to vote as they are already represented in the council by another organisation. In this case that organisation would be KSU.
Y4TE- Youth for the Environment were removed from the council following another motion. Since this NGO is no longer active, their participation as council members is benign and they are no longer associated with the council.
Updating Orthography
As the current statute stands, there are numerous orthographic errors that are in dire need of an upgrade. A proposed motion in Saturday’s EGM acknowledged this defect and intends on making the appropriate amendments to fit the exceptional standards of the Maltese language. No objections to this amendment were made in a unanimous vote.
The ‘Directorates’ Amendment
The directorates will add on another organ to KNŻ’s executive body. The proposed amendment states that these ‘directorates’ will be introduced on technocratic merit to work alongside the executive members. Being made up of 6-8 members, directorates will be appointed according to the needs of the council for the year at hand. This includes the creation of highly specialised roles, like a brand ambassador for example, to ensure that everyone in the team is appointed a role based on their abilities.
This motion sparked an interesting debate in the EGM and was followed by a call to vote in favour or against the introduction of a group of directorates. 70.4% of the council voted in favour, 22.2% voted against and the remainder (7.4%) abstained from voting. As a result, this proposed amendment was approved.
Reducing KNŻ’s Executive Team Number
Following the motion for introduction of directorates, it was proposed to reduce the executive team from 13 to 9 members was proposed. This includes the removal of the roles of Deputy Secretary General, the Policy and Youth Rights Commissioner, and some Board Member Positions. The reason for this includes the implementation of a more horizontal approach for the division of labour which will be supported by the directorates.
This amendment struck up quite a heated debate amongst council members. Discussions on adequate representation in the executive team and the argument for more efficient working dynamics were had. Following this discourse, a call for an anonymous vote was made to determine whether the council would be in favour or against this proposed amendment.
70.4% of the council was in favour of this motion, 25.9% was against and the rest (3.7%) abstained from voting. The motion was approved. We hope to see a fresh restructuring of KNŻ’s executive body- something which somewhat defies the status quo.
KNŻ will be holding their Annual General Meeting on the 13th of March – watch this space for follow ups.